Alex's Fishing Report 2 June 2011

I ask you this: have you ever caught a whopping-great-big barra and then proclaimed “that sucks”?

Well that’s exactly what happened to Tony Hare, Brad Woollams and I the day before the Barra Nationals started on the Daly River.

Hosted by the Palmerston Game Fishing Club, this was the pre-fish – the orientation day – when teams wander down the river to check out tide arrivals, potential spots and river conditions in general.

That’s exactly what our team did, lobbing early in the morning at a preferred location just as the tide peaked.

Out went the big Bombers and new Reidy’s Big Ass B52s and we commenced our fast troll down the centre of the river following a current line.

Plenty of fish were showing up on the sounder, mainly at 2m to 4m depth.
We trolled back and forth around a well-known corner when the aforementioned whopping-great-big barra struck Harey’s B52.

Out it came some 50m behind the boat and I called it immediately for well over a metre.
It put up a splendid fight, often clear of the water, and ex-top-fishing-guide Brad made no mistake with the net.

“Well done mate, but that sucks,” I said, as Harey proudly lifted his PB barra for the camera.
It measured 112cm and had sure been in a good paddock – it weighed 19kg in the net and was therefore a legitimate 40 pounder.

But our bad luck didn’t stop there!

An hour later, at another preferred spot, Brad’s Classic 120 10+ was monstered by metre barra number two.

This was duly landed then, after a couple of measly 80cm fish and lunch under a tree at Elizabeth Creek, we headed back up to the Banyan Farm bemoaning our misfortunes…we knew only too well that the odds of us landing another metrey during the tournament itself had blown sky high.

As it turned out, despite not catching another metre-plus barra, we did quite well, finishing 12th of 59 teams.

However, I can easily admit that, had we caught those two big barra during the tournament and not before, it would not have mattered one iota – we would still have come in only 7th, which is indicative of just how competitive this Nationals was.

Unbelievably, there were more than 2000 barra caught and released, including 17 over a metre.
Mind you, the winning Top End Tackle team of Shane Compain, Terry Ryan and Tynan Bartolo wreaked carnage on the rest of the field.

That’s two in a row for Team Top End Tackle which literally made a mockery of the barra in the river and the other 58 teams competing.

Using the latest technology in the form of a Minn Kota I-Pilot, they were able to position their boat precisely so they could cast snag-free soft plastics upstream and work them back with the current through snags, ledges and muddy bumps.

Their lure of choice for softies was the new Berkley PowerBait 5” Split Belly.
Team captain, Shane Compain, told me: “We caught about half our fish flicking the weedless Berkley hollow bellies and the other half trolling 190 Strada Terras and Reidy’s Big Ass B52s.
“The chrome-plated, green-and-red Terra and the Adrenalin-colour B52 worked best on the troll,” the Barra Nationals Champion Angler explained.

With a stupendous 8427 points, Team Top End Tackle beat the 2nd placed Polar Bears team of Peter Politis, Eddie Carroll and Bert Woodard by nearly 3000 points.

The Polar Bears were Champion Local Team, the Classic Warlocks (John Millyard, Trevor Robb and Justin Jones) won Champion Mixed Team, and the Barra Busters (Kevin Blatchford, Wayne Butler and Ken Johnson) won Champion Interstate Team.

By all accounts, Darwin Game Fishing Club’s inaugural Dundee-based NT XXXX Gold Billfish Classic went off without a hitch, especially given the unkind wind conditions during the event.

According to tournament co-ordinator, Peter Dienhoff, the billfish weren’t on the chew like they were in the weeks preceding the competition.

“It was the coldest May on record I heard, so whether that had something to do with it, I’m not sure,” Peter said.

“In the morning, winds were 10-15 knots but improved late afternoon.
“There was no lack of enthusiasm and Dundee is a great place to hold this event,” he said.
The most notable catch was an approximately-3m black marlin caught by Trevor Robb from Team All Hooked Up.
According to Trev: “The magnificent marlin was caught only 16 nautical miles from the Lodge of Dundee. It took around 1 hour and 40 mins on 24kg gear and towed us 6.5km.”
The black marlin took a Rapala X-Rap Magnum deep-diving minnow.
“This capture was by far the best fishing experience of my life,” Trevor said.

During the tournament, a total of 47 billfish were raised, 16 were hooked and 7 were tagged.
Results are as follows:

CHAMPION BILLFISH TEAM: All Hooked Up (Pat Tait, Trevor and Jayden Robb)
RUNNER-UP BILLFISH TEAM (over 6 metres) Hunter (Steve Shenfield, Phil Bubner, Tracey-Leigh Lunn)


RUNNER-UP BILLFISH TEAM (under 6 metres): Power Bills (Ben Peel, Ben Kilgour, Karen Sobey)

CHAMPION BILLFISH ANGLER: Trevor Robb

CHAMPION JUNIOR BILLFISH ANGLER: Jayden Robb

FIRST BILLFISH TAGGED: Wayne Baldwin

CHAMPION TEAM Mackerel: Shoal Bay Sport Fishing (Bob and Jeff Morris)

CHAMPION TEAM Other Species: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (Bill Briscoe, Cameron Briscoe, Ben Watkins)

Photos:

1.    Tony Hare’s PB 112cm barra, unluckily caught the day before the Barra Nationals, fell to the new Reidy’s Big Ass B52.

2.    Brad Woollams was equally unlucky in catching his Classic120-munching metre barra the day before the Nationals commenced.

3.    Trevor Robb’s fantastic black marlin, caught in the Dundee Billfish Classic, fell to a Rapala X-Rap Magnum deep diver.